Meeting of the Bolshevik Groups Abroad[1]

December 14–17 (27–30), 1911

Written:See below.Published:See below.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,[1974],

      Moscow,Volume 17,

      pages393-396.Translated:Dora CoxTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2004).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

Draft Resolution on the Report
“State of Affairs in the Party”

Thepresent state of Social-Democratic organisations abroad
is abnormal in the extreme.

From1908 onwards, when Social-Democratic publishing had begun to shift
more and more abroad, and prior to the Plenary Meeting, there was a
complete organisational split in all important centres abroad, owing to the
complete secession of the Menshevik groups from the Party.

ThePlenary Meeting (January 1910) attempted to create unity on the
basis of its unanimous approval of an anti-liquidationist and anti-otzovist
line, and made a particularly energetic call for the establishment of
complete unity abroad.

Afterthe Plenary Meeting, however, in view of the non-fulfilment of
its terms by the liquidators and otzovists, no unity of the groups abroad
was achieved. On the contrary, there was greater disintegration, as in fact
theVperyodgroup broke away from the Bolsheviks, and Plekhanov’s
followers from the Mensheviks. The parallel—“first” and “second” or
Menshevik and Bolshevik—groups continued to exist traditionally, but
actually in no way united any sound elements capable of carrying out joint
Social-Democratic work.

Atthe present moment Bolshevik, “conciliator”,Vperyod;Golos, and Plekhanov’s groups exist abroad in factional isolation,
linked together purely formally, and often not atall, completely independent of each other, following different ideological
lines and having their own individual ties with various Social-Democratic
elements in Russia.

Theformation of the Russian Organising Commission (R.O.C.) in Russia
by the forces of the Bolsheviks and pro-Party Mensheviks and the energetic
start made by this R.O.C. Collegium to call a general Party conference of
the R.S.D.L.P. make for a decisive turn in the history of the Party and
show the only possible way, demanded by reality, out of the condition of
disruption and collapse.

Sincethe Plenary Meeting, real Social-Democratic work has been carried
out only by the Bolsheviks and the pro-Party Mensheviks; it was
particularly harmonious in 1910. TheGolosgroup represents
nothing but a section abroad of the Russian liquidator groupDyelo
ZhizniandNasha Zarya, which has placed itself outside the
Party; and theVperyodgroup abroad, which continues to cover up
otzovism and through its leader Lunacharsky to carry out religious
propaganda, conducts work which is not Social-Democratic.

Atthe present moment, the R.O.C., created by the Bolsheviks and the
pro-Party Mensheviks and supported by nearly all the local
Social-Democratic organisations in Russia, is, in fact, the only absolutely
competent centre of Social-Democratic Party work.

Unitingthe Bolsheviks in one Social-Democratic organisation abroad,
the Meeting places the responsibility for the continuing split abroad on
those groups who do not wish to support the Russian centre, the R.O.C., or
on those who, cut off from Russia, continue “to play at agreeing”, thus
supporting non-Social-Democratic groups that are isolated from Russian
work.

TheBolshevik organisation abroad will, as hitherto, use all its
strength to attract, irrespective of trends, all Social-Democrats prepared
to support the R.O.C. and to carry out the Party line, that is, the
anti-liquidationist and anti-otzovist (and equally anti-god-seeker) line,
in order that they join forces and merge into one Party organisation.

Thepractical task of the Party organisation abroad is to struggle
against the liquidationist and otzovist trends,against the disintegration of the groups abroad having no ideological
basis, assisting the unification of all real Social-Democratic Party
members and pro-Party Mensheviks in particulars and assisting the R.O.C. We
consider that the organs which should be supported, by Party members are
the Central Organ andRabochaya Gazeta, as the isolation of the
pro-Party Mensheviks (abroad) can in no manner be justified, and no change
of thelineconfirmed by Party decisions can be found in the
above-mentioned journals.

RESOLUTION ON THE RUSSIAN ORGANISING COMMISSION FOR THE
CONVENING OF A
CONFERENCE[2]

ThisMeeting confirms that for a long time? for two years
at least, the Party has recognised the urgent need to call a Party
conference. At the present time, despite all obstacles a decisive step has
been taken to bring this about. An R.O.C. has been formed in Russia,
supported by all local organisations (Kiev, Baku, Tiflis, Ekaterinoslav,
Ekaterinburg, St. Petersburg, Moscow? Nikolayev, Saratov, Kazan, Wilno,
Dvinsk, Nizhni-Novgorod, Sormovo, Samara, Tyumen, Rostov, and others).

ThisMeeting welcomes the formation of the R.O.C., and declares it to
be the duty of every Party member to render it every support.

[1]TheMeeting of the Bolshevik Groups Abroadtook place in Paris
on December 14–17 (27–30), 1911. It was called on the initiative of the
Paris Group supporting the Bolshevik newspaperRabochaya
Gazeta. The aim of the Meeting was to unify the Bolshevik
organisations abroad and support the convening of an all-Russia Party
conference. Eleven delegates with full voting rights participated from
Bolshevik groups in Paris, Nancy, Zurich, Davos, Geneva, Liége,
Berne, Bremen, and Berlin. Lenin reported on the state of affairs in the
Party, and the draft resolution on this question, drawn up by Lenin, served
as a basis for the general resolution, adopted by the Meeting. The
“Notification” and resolution of the Meeting were published by the
Committee of the R.S.D.L.P. Organisation Abroad in a leaflet on January 12,
1912 (N.S.).

Theheading to tile document has been provided by the Institute of
Marxism-Leninism of the Central Committee of the C.P.S.U.

[2]Theresolution was adopted on December 17 (30), 1911, at the last
session of the Meeting of the Bolshevik groups abroad. The resolution was
published in the “Notification” of the Committee of the
R.S.D.L.P. Organisation Abroad, with the following explanation:

“A special resolution of the Meeting drew the attention of all Party
comrades to the need to give energetic support to the Russian Organising
Commission and the conference which it is convening”.

Theheading to the document has been provided by the Institute of
Marxism-Leninism of the Central Committee of the C.P.S.U.